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Deimon Master

It has come to my attention that, despite the name of this subforum, there exists no good thread to actually, y'know, banter. Having threads for each topic of discussion is nice, but what if you just want to shoot the breeze? What if you don't want to be boxed in by a single topic? What if you just like being random?

If any of those apply to you, this is where you belong. You can talk about anything in this thread, as long as you abide by our rules (especially Rule 1). In the unlikely event that a single topic ends up dominating the discussion for too long, myself or another admin/mod may relocate the relevant posts to their own thread if deemed necessary. Don't worry about that for now, though. Feel free to banter to your heart's content!

Deimon Master

I just had a good philosophical discussion with another forum member within the past week, in fact! We talked about utilitarianism and its relationship with morality, determinism, and went in depth about the potential ramifications of determinism and why they don't really matter.

What kind of philosophy were you hoping to discuss, @Jimothy? I'm not super well-versed in philosophy, but I know the layman's version of a lot of concepts, at least.

Rogue Chemist, Supreme Summoner

My old friend and I had a long-running reparteé on the philosophy of perception. Basically, that there is no proof of anything as there is nothing to verify the claims made by your senses apart from your senses themselves, and what that means for a universe or lack thereof. Thoughts or arguments?

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveler
Like the beam of a lightless star

☕☕☕☕

My old friend and I had a long-running reparteé on the philosophy of perception. Basically, that there is no proof of anything as there is nothing to verify the claims made by your senses apart from your senses themselves, and what that means for a universe or lack thereof. Thoughts or arguments?

I once read this YA novel (Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde) about a virtual reality game in which you can be totally immersed inside a pre-programmed story/game for entertainment purposes. Time moves much faster inside the game than the time you spend playing it in real life, so you can experience a lot in a short amount of time.

Sometimes I wonder if the life I'm living is just some programmed VR story that my real self (whom I cannot remember while inside the VR) is living through just for entertainment, and one day I'll wake up to find this whole life was simply an ultra-condensed 30-minute VR story and I'll return to a different life entirely without being bothered at all.

Also, I really liked how I only had to Google "book about stuck in virtual reality game keeps dying" to find the book title I mentioned. Second result. Real or fake, this reality has a pretty good web search engine.

In response to Jimothy's point about there being no proof of anything, due to the necessity of our senses to perceive what's going on in the world around us, if you take that to it's logical conclusion, you either get The Matrix, or something along similar lines. It could be a universal simulator, like that story above talks about, or someone living out a pre-programmed VR life. But, one thing all those have in common is that it supposes that everything we perceive can be reduced to pure data, or information.

It's worthwhile to read through some of the other fiction on that site I linked, particularly one called "Fine Structure" (it is rather long though, fair warning). From what I can recall, it talks about how the fundamental building blocks of reality aren't the elementary particles we know of, such as quarks, but are rather simply information. Of course, that's just fiction, but it's worth considering whether something similar is at play in our universe, and if so, how do we detect it?

Rogue Chemist, Supreme Summoner

In response to Jimothy's point about there being no proof of anything, due to the necessity of our senses to perceive what's going on in the world around us, if you take that to it's logical conclusion, you either get The Matrix, or something along similar lines. It could be a universal simulator, like that story above talks about, or someone living out a pre-programmed VR life. But, one thing all those have in common is that it supposes that everything we perceive can be reduced to pure data, or information.

While a hecc of a thot, that's not even what I'm getting at. I'm saying that nothing you know exists in the first place. There is no way to verify your senses. This forum is you extrapolating from nothing. That image you see of a "brain" when you stop and think about what's extrapolating in the first place, there's nothing to confirm that that is what your thinking looks like. It's just as likely that there exists just your consciousness as there is a Matrixian simulator, and in applying Occam's Razor, the former becomes increasingly more likely than the latter. It's a dangerous spookhole that leads to nowhere, inhabited by nothing.

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveler
Like the beam of a lightless star

Deimon Master

While a hecc of a thot, that's not even what I'm getting at. I'm saying that nothing you know exists in the first place. There is no way to verify your senses. This forum is you extrapolating from nothing. That image you see of a "brain" when you stop and think about what's extrapolating in the first place, there's nothing to confirm that that is what your thinking looks like. It's just as likely that there exists just your consciousness as there is a Matrixian simulator, and in applying Occam's Razor, the former becomes increasingly more likely than the latter. It's a dangerous spookhole that leads to nowhere, inhabited by nothing.

Ok, but if you're applying Occam's Razor, isn't it even more likely that the vast mountain of evidence we have that indicates we do exist in a material world is, y'know, correct? If you're assuming all of the things we see, feel, and interact with are products of our own imaginings, that's assuming an awful lot on its own, and it leaves far more questions unanswered, such as: where does that consciousness exist, if not in a material world? How is it able to simulate reality to such a high degree of verisimilitude? Perhaps most importantly, why?

It's a fun thought experiment, and it's not without some merit, but I think it's more likely to be evidence for the existence of a soul (i.e. a version of you that exists apart from the confines of your fleshy prison) than it is to indicate the non-existence of reality.

I find myself unable to sleep, so hey, why not? @X-39, are you up for some banter? It could be about anything. My mind has been consumed with Mario Kart and Pokémon tonight, if you're interested in either of those. Or anyone else who wants to chat later, for that matter.

A humble robot

I find myself unable to sleep, so hey, why not? @X-39, are you up for some banter? It could be about anything. My mind has been consumed with Mario Kart and Pokémon tonight, if you're interested in either of those. Or anyone else who wants to chat later, for that matter.

Hmm... nope, can't remember anything hilarious, per se... Although, that could just be because I haven't had time to play it in almost a year. Civ takes too long The last noteworthy thing I remember doing is beating Deity for the first time by abusing the world gen settings (Archipelago map with high sea levels really hinders the AI's ability to spread). I conquered half the civs in the game (all the aggressive ones, at least), and then went for a culture victory for funsies. All hail the power of anime!

What about you? Haven't you played it for cumulative months or something like that? Surely you've got some fun experiences worth sharing!